


Pine Needles of Sorrow

by WarrenTheWriter



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Child Neglect, David is a cinnamon roll, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, HalfVampire!David, HalfWerewolf!David, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Max is an asshole, Max just needs some love, PROTECTIVE DAVID, Pinecones, dadvid
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-02-16 04:50:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 21,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13046853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WarrenTheWriter/pseuds/WarrenTheWriter
Summary: Max may have gotten a little too hesitant to believe in the supernatural, leading to what started as innocent Camp Campbell play to morphe into a catastrophe involving ghosts, pinecones, hospitals, and, hopefully, a brand new wolf dad.





	1. Pinecones

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first ever Camp Camp fanfiction, co-created with the lovely Jadedtroublemaker. I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to read this. Criticism is greatly appreciated. David's POV was written by me and Max's POV was written by Jadedtroublemaker. All editing and spell-checking were done by yours truly.

. . . Max POV . . .

It was a usual day at Camp Camp, the children making it chaotic by tearing down the signs, starting fires, torturing one another. Etc. The sunshade skin kid had walked around the camp with his hateful scowl pasted across his face. He would stop every few minutes to see what kind of shit the other campers were pulling now. Rolling his eyes, he would walk past Space Kid who had tripped in front of him. 

The papers had collided with Max's face. In bold letters, the heading had read;

'Do not. We Repeat. Do not touch any pine cones that are laying around your camp. A myth has been said that if you pick up the pine cones and disrespect them, your camp will be suffering the consequences.'

Campers from a long, long time ago, had stuck sap on them as a glue substitute, used carving knives to make them in the image of the people that they wanted to curse. A particular person they had in mind was their Camp Counselor. Though, he wasn't as sweet and kind as David was. He was mean-spirited and pushed the kids way too hard. He made them do child labor by making them dig ditches for his gold he had discovered buried beneath the pine cone tree. They made them carve wood all day just so he wouldn't have to think of activities for them to do. The kids had enough of him. They glued sharp blades of grass to the top of their heads. They had made a ring in the very spot that Max was standing on to summon the spirits.

With a bored, unfazed look by what the paper had to say, Max picked up a pine cone returning the favor of hitting Space Kid on his helmet. 

"Next time fucking look where you are going, Space Kid." 

He continued to venture around the camp. A low growl came from him when another piece of the NewsPaper had smacked into his face again. He smacked it off of his face, annoyed. He marches over with the NewsPaper clenched in his fist. 

"Space Kid! I am fucking serious! Stop throwing your Conspiracy NewsPaper at me!" His scowl was soon on his friend Nikki who had questioned him when he said Conspiracy NewsPaper. 

"Yes. A Conspiracy! I've told all of you idiots before, there are no such things as ghosts. The Campbell Pine Cone Conspiracy is just a way of getting gullible morons like David to buy their piece of shit paper." He folded his arms over his chest. His scowl now moving in the direction of Space Kid who had rushed over to point out that he was standing in the circle, and he also touched a pine cone! Now, he was going to be cursed! Max still was not fazed by anything the other campers were telling him. God, these guys were impossible. 

"I am not cursed you dumb ass. The paper is a fake! It's bullshitting everyone! Why do you guys want to believe it!" After another Camper, Nerris, had told him that curses were like dark magic, he was the fuck out of there. He had walked towards where David's office is. 

 

He stood over next to David, who probably didn't even notice that the camp was in such horrible condition. Arching up one of his eyebrows, he had started to speak. 

"Hey, David. Have you looked at the camp lately? It's a fucking mess." He was not referring to the total anarchy, no. He was referring to how the campers were believing bullshit. He had glanced over at the window noticing the campers in panic, staring at the pine cone that Max had thrown at Space Kid. His two friends Nikki and Neal were hovering around the circle. 

"Goddammit." He looked down frustrated that even his friends were buying in on this. The hell he is cursed! They were just pine cones. Why would a pine cone be cursed? Max wasn't understanding, it was not the pine cone itself that was cursed but the people who messed with the pine cones summoned the spirits of those two campers. And, the counselor. They would not leave the person alone until they had their vengeance. Max had no idea what he had just done. He really shouldn't be so skeptical all the time. Max had walked back out where his two friends were after he had talked to David. Talking to David did not help. He was now even more frustrated. Letting out a sigh, he stood close to his tent watching the madness unfold. 

"Just touch the pine cone, Nikki. It's only a pine cone." He noticed she was using a stick to touch it. He receives a glare in return from his friend who says she doesn't want to have his curse! 

"There is no such thing as that stupid curse! Would all of you lay off of that!" Max places his hands into his jacket pockets heading back to David. He wanted him to do something about this! 

"Seriously. Go out there and get this camp's shit together! Conspiracy intervention these idiots." Max had been saying some harsh words more than usual. His frustration was building with their stupid beliefs.

. . . David POV . . .

The day was… warm. It had a sort of fuzzy feeling to it. It was like one of those days when you hopped out of bed thinking that it was Monday but really it was Sunday. An off sort of day. But in a good way. The scent of pine was in the air, wafting through David’s hair and making his already chipper mood exuberant. Currently, he was in his office, sorting through things. 

He sat at a small desk, a wooden one, with one of those desk lamps plugged into the wall on the corner of it. Papers scattered the surface of the nature-loving counselor’s desk, pamphlets and application forms. They were mostly the campers’. Among them were a few of his own documents, bills and things that he was behind on. Each time he looked at them he bit his lip and frowned, though only for a moment. Working as a camp counselor didn’t have good pay, less than his other jobs; how was he supposed to afford things? Really… and it was only for three months out of the year, anyway. 

But every summer was the time when he was in the most economic distress. But he really didn’t care. Camp Campbell was his life, it was what he lived for since he was a kid. A stupid dream, some say, but it was all he had. One of those people was Gwen, who was probably in her cabin, watching Doctor Who and fangirling about it immensely. The thought brought a warm smile to his lips. Those rare occasions when Gwen was actually happy were refreshing. 

David peered outside for a moment to see the children playing amongst the trees and grass, and he saw a few of them fiddling with pine cones. Though they didn’t touch them. They simply… talked about them? It was hard to pinpoint exactly what they were doing without any context. Oh well, David thought, it’s best to leave them to their imaginations. He then returned to his paperwork, his cheek in his hand and tired eyes half-lidded. The cheery man was jolted fully awake, however, once a familiar voice presented itself. Max came in, using foul language as always, describing the camp as a mess. David looked over at him and abandoned his work for a moment to say;

“I see no messes, Max! Only happy campers and, well, not so happy campers,” he smiled, giving him a thumbs-up. Once the child left he continued on with his vices. Goodness him, they could be so infuriating! How was he supposed to come up with this? David ran his hands through his hair and twirled around in his chair, abandoning all financial responsibility at the moment. Sometimes he wished that he could just… be. Exist and not have to worry about all of this. Not having to worry about money or food or blowing his cover or his job or anything…

Max was back. 

“Now, Max,” David rose from his seat to frown over the young boy, “Language. And they can believe what they want, so long as they’re not hurting anyone. What are they saying now? That the Old Maple Trail is haunted?” David jested, smiling thoughtfully and placing his hands on his hips, tilting his head with interest like a dog would, “I doubt it’s anything harmful, Max. Why don’t you try and have some fun with them? Play into it a bit!” he suggested. 

. . . Max POV . . .

He placed two fingers from each hand on his temple, rubbing at it. 

"They are hurting my sanity, David. The old maple trail is not haunted. Ghosts do not exist! Why do I have to keep explaining this to everyone? Death is just death. We are not heading to some cloudy fantasy that everybody dreams of!" The child was ill-tempered towards David's still irritatingly annoying attitude. A grin soon had formed on his face after David had given him the suggestion. 

"You are right, David. I should go have some fun with them." His idea of fun was not probably what the counselor would have in mind. He wanted to screw with all of them. It was the only thing at this camp that he actually did enjoy doing. He left with his sinister look in his eyes heading back towards where the other campers were at, after making a pit stop over to the mess hall. He stole a bottle of maple syrup pouring it all over himself. The green haired girl jumped back when seeing that Max was heading in their direction. Her eyes huge at the condition he looked in. 

"Stay back, Max! I don't want your curse! There are a lot of weird things I wouldn't mind being, but cursed is not one of them." Max had stopped grinning, a replaced look of fear forming on his face. He placed his hands on both of his cheeks. He made his demeanor more skittish. 

"Nikki you have to help me! I-I-I think that curse I said you guys were overreacting about is real!" Nikki became shocked and petrified by what sounded like a cry of help from him. 

"M-M-Max, what made you change your mind about it?" She was afraid to hear what answer she might end up with. She hadn't noticed that Max was dripping maple syrup. Max's eyes had grown big with innocence. He wanted to really sell it. 

"It was the sap that just randomly appeared all over me. I feel like I might be ch-changing! You gotta help!" The other campers had gathered around, hearing the little troublemaker; Max. 

A girlish scream came from Preston, discovering and witnessing with his own two eyes Max covered in the legendary sap. He soon clears his throat. His eyes closing in a too much of a prideful way. 

"...A very believable costume, Max. But that was not the play that we were going to do tonight. We are supposed to be doing Hamlet." 

Max turned over towards Preston. Jesus, this kid was lame. Nonetheless, he had stayed in character. 

"Preston? The fag diva of stupid plays? Is that y-y-ou?" Just to scare the fuck out of everyone, he started to walk closer to the other campers. Before, Preston had run away screaming louder, like a girl. He responded to Max's rude question. 

"I am a visionary, Max! Not a fag diva!" This was getting fun for Max. Hey, maybe he could use this as an advantage to get them to do stuff for him. 

"G-G-Guys, the spirit of the maple trail told me that he will start killing us if we don't meet his demands. Starting with Space Kid since he's the most expendable!" He was getting him back for throwing Newspaper at him. Space Kid started to become timid and nervous. 

"M-M-Me? Oh no! What should I do, Max?" The sticky maple syrup covered child put a finger up to his chin. 

"You need to eat all of the pine cones. " Space Kid was confused, raising one eyebrow up. 

"But, we are supposed to leave the pine cones alone. That will just make them angrier. Won't it?" Max grabbed hold of his Space suit shaking him. 

"Idiot! It's what they make campers do so they can take over your body. Well. Guess you are infected now. Yep. You are probably going to die. " He gave a bored look staring at the syrup trail that connected from Max's hand to Space Kid's suit. Space Kid had started to panic running away. The maple syrup trailing behind him. Max watched him still not showing much of an expression. His arms were folded over his chest turning back to the other campers who were scared. 

"So, anybody else want to be infected?" He gritted his teeth. The other campers waved their hands wildly saying they would do what the spirit said. 

"Okay, then. I need all to go on that trail. I will hang with you, but you have to kiss all the trees and shit. And you have to wrap yourselves in toilet paper. It's the only way to camouflage yourselves." He made up the so-called rules of the legend, since he had been bored. He definitely wanted to scare the shit out of David, as well. He couldn't wait until he would get out of his office. What could he do to David? He could pretend to be killed? That would really make him lose his shit. He would just need some of the stale powdered donuts they had leftover from that 'I'm so proud of you campers' party. Or maybe not. He might get attacked by hungry birds. What else was there he could use to make himself look like a ghost? 

His eyes landed on his tent and on Dolf who was painting a picture of the legend. Oh yeah. That will definitely work. He ran to behind a tree waiting until the moment David would step out of his office, to call; 

"HELP! HELP! Jesus Christ! Ahh!" He threw himself out from behind the tree pretending he was being dragged away. 

"DAVID!!! Fucking god dammit help me out!" He held onto the tree as he was continuing to fake being in danger. He stepped on a bunch of twigs, making it sound like they were tearing him apart. He also stepped on some red berries that flowed red juice onto the tree. He had stopped making any noises waiting for the reaction he would get. 

He had hidden further into the woods.

. . . David POV . . .

David chuckled, smiling slightly at the kid’s complaints. He bent down to ruffle the cynical camper’s unruly black locks and then he tilted his head.

“I can’t do anything about them hurting your sanity. It’s fun to believe in spooky stories!” David told him, his smile then grew wide and he stood back up, pondering Max's claims. Ghosts didn’t exist? Well. He begged to differ. Immensely, actually. The many ghosts that he had met in his lifetime were not the best of company but they most definitely existed. His mind wandered off to Spooky Island. It was called Spooky Island for a reason… A slight chill ran down his spine as that thought unfolded into a thousand, all containing Jasper and the day that he was killed. Damn bears… he internally detested the animal. Bears… he hated them with a fiery passion. If he ever came across the chance, he was sure that he would tear apart each and every one of them if he could. Though that would probably never happen, as previous scuffles between him and bears had ended with him running away for dear life, screaming his girlish scream. 

Suddenly, Max’s demeanor changed into something mischievous. But David was an oblivious cinnamon roll and he didn’t notice, too blind sighted by the wonderful phrase ‘I should go have some fun with them.’ He thought that it was wonderful that Max was going to go and have fun with the other campers, even if he didn’t believe in what they did. 

Some time passed after the child left, and David was once more left with those thoughts of Jasper, and LA Gear Light-Up Shoes, and Cameron Campbell, and bears…  
Until he decided that it was too much and to get out of his stuffy office. 

David stepped out of his office with a sigh to keep an eye on the campers. The view that he from his office wasn’t the best; he could see about a fourth of the camp, where the flag was until the beginning of the woods. Not the best of views, and he didn’t even get a view of the lake, dock, or the Wood Scout’s island. Though that was probably a good thing. As much as David preached niceness to everyone, as much as he loved to include everyone, to be kind, and to make sure that everyone was treated as an equal, he honestly didn’t favor the Wood Scouts. They were just… weird. And not to say that being weird was bad. David was anything but normal, he loved ‘weird.’ Why be normal, right? But the Wood Scouts were odd in their own way. They were always trying to recruit Camp Campbell campers into their own organization, which was illegal, by the way, and they were the darker of the three camps in the area. Flower Camp he didn’t mind much, although the pungent odor of all of the baked goods and flowers that they had an affinity for often made him nauseated whenever he ventured toward the vicinity of their camp. 

Screaming interrupted his thoughts and he paused where he was at, mid-step. He then whipped his head around, scanning the place for any odd-looking disturbances. He saw Preston, Nikki, Neil, and Space Kid all within the relative area of each other. Space Kid was running around, seemingly terrified for his life or some other thing that had frightened the poor kid. David noted that he had a trail of something following him. Something sticky… The camp counselor wondered exactly what it was, but the faintly sweet aroma gave away the fact that it was syrup. Now, what on earth were those kids doing with syrup? Oh, he could only guess. But syrup was not the reason why he turned around so quickly. Frantic cries of ‘help’ and ‘David’ were what pinged in his ears and drew his attention. Crunching sounds erupted from beyond the tree as well; they eerily sounded like breaking bones. The addition of swear words in the mix made it clear that the one who was calling him was Max. He spotted the child next to a tree, appearing to be dragged away. Immediately, he rushed over, the hair on the back of his neck standing up and his heart going a million times a minute. The brown-skinned boy could actually be in danger. Well, he would have to be in imminent danger to even think of asking the counselor for help. 

“Max!” he cried out, urgently attempting to discern whether or not the boy was okay. 

As he investigated the scene, he saw nothing but snapped twigs. Max’s scent hung thick in the air. The nature-loving man bent down to pick one of them up, and then he looked up from the brown stick and into the recesses of the trees around him. Nothing looked out of place except for footprints in the dirt, scattered and messy. David narrowed his eyes and then they found the red splotch on the tree. Blood was the first word to come to his mind, and he was about to run and call 911, his body tense, and his expression fearful as he gripped the stick in worry, but something halted him. This certainly looked like blood, but… there was no iron tinge in the air, nothing that even indicated it to be blood at all. And he knew what blood smelled like; certainly not like this. So he moved over to the tree and gently swiped a finger over the red spot, bringing it up to his face to taste it. Definitely not how blood tastes either. It was juice. 

“Max,” he called again, this time chastisingly. He licked the rest of the juice off of his finger, noting the bitter taste, “Very funny, Max. Now please come out of whatever hiding spot you’re in,” he then said, ignoring the fact that he could tell Max was hiding right there. His nose never lied, and there Max was, even if he couldn’t see him with his eyes, “That was not funny. If I had called the authorities then you would be in big trouble! Not to say that you won’t be in some when I pull you into my office. But you’d have been in more,” the counselor sighed, putting his hands on his hips and glaring into the woods, but the glare could only be sustained for a moment. It morphed into a look of slight regret. 

“I didn’t mean that, really. I just want you to know the importance of danger. Faking it isn’t to be taken lightly. Because if you fake it enough, when you’re actually in danger no one will believe you. It’s like the boy who cried wolf, Max,” he attempted a gentler approach to coax the child out of the deeper brush. 

. . . Max POV . . .

Max's poofy hair had started to stick out from behind one of the other trees hearing David say his name. Dammit. What could of given it away? As smart as Max was compared to the other campers, he sometimes didn't consider the important parts. Like the copper smell of blood. He soon had started to scowl deeply. Ugh, even when David was upset his voice was still enough to make his ears want to bleed. He stuck his head out further from the tree, stepping out into sight in the brush. But he didn't step out towards where the actual campsite was. 

"Pssh. I would rather be stuck in jail than with you any day, David. I've told you how much I hate you, haven't I? I'm surprised an idiot like you could figure this out." He was about to say something else, but a noise had caught his attention. It sounded like a mix between a wounded yelping canine and crying from a child. His scowl disappeared only for a moment. The instant David had started to talk again, he rolled his eyes. 

"I would like to see a fucking wolf come and find me." Max was not taking what David said at all seriously. He didn't care if he did this twenty more times. It was fun and he was going to keep it up. He furthered his distance from David, not wanting to really deal with him, at all. The brush swayed as he had stepped deeper into the woods. He had forgotten about the disturbing noise he had just heard. His focus only on trying to keep away from the counselor. He would live in here, if he had to. There the noise was again. This time, it sounded even more like a child crying. He felt a slight chill blow past his shoulder. With each step he took, he was getting further away from the campsite. The panicked screams and freaking out of the morons were drowning out. A pine cone tumbled out from behind a log causing Max to trip. 

"What the fuck!" He groans lifting himself up with his hands. He lowly growls noticing the pine cone in his path. 

"Okay! Which one of you god damn people followed me!" He went towards the log yanking something out. 

"Aha! The hell are you doing...following me." He had trailed off realizing he was grabbing at a weed. 

"Oh." Max's scowl was fading slowly. He gritted his teeth starting to feel scared. Another cold chill had been felt on one of his shoulders. He slowly had turned. His meadow green eyes growing huge when he saw a ghost floating in the air. He was fucking gone, at that moment. 

"Ahh! Somebody help! Fuck what I said before!" He wasn't aware he had wandered onto the old maple trail. 

With heavy panting, he had leaned his hand against a rock trying to catch his breath. He lifted his head glancing over. His eyes freezing on the path. He didn't see anything. He only saw leaves being gently blown by the wind. Where was David? He really wouldn't mind seeing that fucking happy face right now. He wished he wouldn't have gone so far in the woods. God dammit, God dammit! He looked down at the leaves that stuck to the syrup he had all over his blue jacket. Whelp. He should probably start running again. He resumes running, trying to find a safe place. 

"These woods are definitely not a safe place! Murderers live in here!" He looked back to see if anything was following him out. The wounded canine yelping had started again. He came to a halt, as more pine cones rolled out from different spots in the woods. He shifted his eyes beginning to become freaked out by all of the weird shit that was after him. He had tripped over another pine cone, this time falling out from the brush, landing right by David's feet. He slowly looked up in relief. Relieved to actually see fucking David, fucking David! Man, he had to be freaked out. His friends Nikki and Neal had shown their concern running over, but not too close to him since he was cursed. 

"Max! What happened?" Neil asked from a safe distance between them. 

"Gh-" Max had started to grow angry again picking himself off the ground not finishing what he was going to say. His scowl deep looking at everyone. 

"So? You all figured out I've been shitting with you. I gotta say, you had me going there for a minute, but... I knew that this had Nikki written all over it." 

Nikki arches her eyebrow confused by Max's accusation. 

"Max, my name isn't in the brush. And, I have been here trying to avoid you. I wouldn't think of getting into that danger zone." 

Max was shooting her angry wide eyes. 

"Admit it, Nikki. You are mad I fucked with you so you fucked with me back!" Nikki just looked at Max, as if he was delusional. Neil was also sharing the same look with her. Max did a sarcastic sounding insane laugh. 

"You can't make me! I do not believe in your ghost shit!" Now, all of the campers exchange similar looks as Nikki and Neal. Max looked up at David, pointing a finger up at him. 

"This is you, isn't it? You wanted to teach me a lesson about god-awful fairy tales being real! So, you came up with this fucked up plan!" Being in the woods for that amount of time by himself had made him a little not himself.

. . . David POV . . .

David smiled once the reluctant camper showed himself again, a scowl on his face and instantly spewing hateful words. David began to wonder if the child was always like this, all frowns and curse words, and he wondered how on earth his parents dealt with him. He was always getting into mischief, always doing something he was supposed to, he was cynical and rude, and he was absolutely hated camp. Though David still had a place in his heart for him because, well, Max was Max and you had to take him with a grain of salt. More like the entire ocean full of salt… The counselor would keep trying, though. Just… keep trying. Even though, by the end of the summer, the kid would hate camp even more. David hoped he found something to like, at least… maybe some friends. 

“Jail isn’t a pretty place, Max,” David started to tell him, though he trailed off once Max continued. He furrowed his brows and his face acquired a blank expression as he told him that he hated him yet again (yes, Max, he knows how much you hate him…) and then proceeded to insult his intelligence. David smiled lightly and then he shook his head. 

“Well, at least you’re passionate about something. Even if that something /is/ hating me. Perhaps you could use this energy and channel it into something positive?” he offered the kid with a grin, and then he chuckled when Max made his comment to David’s idiom. Well, there was one not too far away. David then watched as Max started to leave him, heading back into the forest. He took a step to follow him, his boot crunching on the scattered leaves on the ground, reaching a hand out as if to grab the child, but he let his arm fall to his side and retracted the step that he had previously taken. If Max wanted to stalk off and be difficult he was going to let him. 

Honestly, that kid… he put his hands on his hips and stared at the spot where Max had disappeared into the woods and then he looked back to the other campers. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the glimpse of a mop of dark brown hair. Gwen was finally coming out of her cabin, carrying a magazine and reading it whilst simultaneously tapping her phone screen, presumably texting. She arched one eyebrow boredly as she tapped on the screen a few times once more and then stashed the device away in the pocket of her shorts. She closed the magazine as well and she looked over to David. He waved at her, putting on a smile. The other counselor then made her way over to where David was standing. 

“What are you doing over here, David? Let me guess; studying trees? Crying over a crushed flower?” Gwen jested with a wry smile. David shook his head. 

“Nope. I was talking to Max, but he just disappeared into the woods. I should go after him, but… I don’t want to violate his privacy. He doesn’t like me much, after all…” David pondered, chewing on his lip. 

“Go after the little shit. We can’t afford another death,” Gwen urged. She looked as if she was going to slap the man, and knowing Gwen, she would. David shrank away from her slightly upon instinct. 

“Okay, Okay, I—” David paused as he heard shouting in the woods; Max. He strained to pick up the words, and he clearly heard murder. The woods were unsafe? If you say so, Max… he internally chuckled. Another prank being pulled by the mischievous child, no doubt. But he should still go and see what he was getting up to. The counselor moved to start off into the woods, aiming to follow Max’s scent but was halted yet again by the appearance of the exact camper he was going to find. The child came tumbling out of the woods and landed at his feet. For a moment he thought he saw relief flicker across the young boy’s face, but then it morphed into his typical scowl. The kid’s friends had wandered over, no doubt to take in the state of their friend. David made a mental note to make sure that he washed; Max’s clothes and skin was covered in syrup and the forest debris that stuck to it. Leaves and dirt and little bits of bark… oh, my. 

“Max… I’m sure it was just an overactive imagination. Or your friends pulling jokes on you, even if they won’t admit it,” that statement was met with remarks of protest from Neil and Nikki. 

David frowned slightly as Max went on to keep playing the blame game, and finally, whatever he had seen in the woods was pinned on David himself. The cheery man raised an eyebrow, pondering whether or not the kid was actually frightened, even though he didn’t show it, or if this was some silly little ploy to get David to act concerned about him and then laugh in his face about it later. The counselor decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, and he sighed. 

“Max, I didn’t do anything, okay?” He reassured, and then he started to lead the cynical boy back to his office. 

“Why don’t we step into my office for a moment, Max,” he told him, though it was more of a gentle command than a question. Once the child was inside of the building, he closed the door and then he asked him;

“Now what exactly did you see when you were in the woods?”


	2. Ghosts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max's paranoia about the curse leads to several things; agoraphobia, snooping, and... suspecting David of assisting in a homicide...?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!

. . . Max POV . . .

Max's scowl was only deepening listening to the response. 

"I am not passionate about it. I just fucking hate you! I am not a passionate person. Definitely not passionate about anything that has to deal with you, Davie." He had said, most people he knew about from David's past called him that as a nickname but Max often would use it as an insult. He didn't get what David found so great about this place or life. He hated both. Fuck Camp Campbell. And everything. It was true, he was cynical for a kid. He often saw the negatives instead of the positives that his counselor was always trying to encourage to do. He didn't want to do any of it. He wanted to just get out of this place. His parents probably wouldn't notice if he didn't come back from the Camp. All they wanted to do was argue. 

Each time he would walk into the living room, he would often hear his Dad cussing out his Mom, then if he saw Max he would tear into him. His parents would forget about their arguments. The only thing that ever kept them from their repetitive arguments about anything was him. 

"Max! You better of not fucked up on your spelling test! We want a perfect kid! Not some piece of shit moron. Also get the fucking foot cream. My god damn foot is aching." He recalled his Dad cussing him out. This was the main reason that Max was so vulgar. His parents had set the worst example for him. While David was talking, he was remembering every last shitty moment before this shitty camp. His parents were never the kindest to him. They were harsh telling him that he should just stop giving a shit about anything. Max had anger when he was a toddler, but it grew as he was growing. His parents had taken his chance at happiness. They had made him see the world differently from the start. Fucked up. He believed he was fucked up because his parents told him he was for doing the normal things that kids did like cheating on a test or sneaking into an r rated movie. Whatever. He didn't care about them. They could hate him all they wanted. They even would criticize what people he would try to talk to. They wouldn't let him make any friends followed by them saying he deserved to be alone. If Max ever had any happiness left, it had been shot to hell with his shitty parents.

 

Nikki had shot a glare over to David, taking offense. 

"Why is it when something that has to deal with the supernatural or somebody is losing their mind, I get blamed?! I am more than just sneaky." 

Max's scowl went from David back over to Nikki. He knew they were somehow the one who pulled off this whole thing. He shoved his hands into his blue jacket pockets following after him. A glare directed towards the ground. He had not said a word when David denied taking part. He was still thinking about the hell he just saw. How did they make it float? Where did they hide the fans that made the chill on shoulders he was feeling? Did they hide out in the tree and make the ghost move with puppet strings? Why the fuck should he care about this? He knew it was them. He knew! Ghosts did not exist. He glares harder trying to think of what other possibilities there could be. Nothing was making sense, except for what he had thought about before. Was it really a... Jesus Christ! 

His eyes had become wide actually considering the thought of what he saw to be real. It was replaced not too long after, with the usual hateful scowl on his face. The child's head was still lowered onto the ground, even while David was trying to ask. The question only made him angrier. So, he decided that he would lie about it. 

"I didn't see anything. I was only messing with you. Shut up now." He had started to walk back towards the door, grabbing hold of the handle. He froze, a flash of the ghost in his mind. He had let go of the handle, falling backward. His eyes looking like he had just seen a ghost. In this case, that would be correct. Again, he went back to scowling hiding the fear he was feeling right now. 

"Don't bug me about this ghost bullshit anymore, David. Leave me out of your sick amusement. Let me just live my shitty days at camp." He acted like he was going to walk out of the office, placing his hand on the doorknob only to pull it back abruptly. He didn't want to go back out there. What if the ghost followed him here? What if the curse was real! What if...dammit! He was really losing it here. He didn't want to believe in it. But he knew that nobody could project an image of a ghost in his mind! That was fucking impossible! He bit his bottom lip, shifting his eyes over to David. He closed his eyes, which still managed to look hateful when they were not in view. He opened them back up, beginning to ask something he would never ask David. 

"Do you need help with any of this shit?" 

Max glanced out the window of David's office staring at the circle that had been covered with leaves and clumps of dirt. Nobody wanted to see it. Rumors were heard that if you stared at it long enough your eyes would begin to burn. The campers had not wanted to take that chance covering it before anybody could be subjected to that. The way Max had acted after he had fallen out of the brush made the other campers become more afraid of him. They thought he might be possessed. Neil was trying to tell them they were being close-minded. Maybe Max was just traumatized by being lost? Or maybe he got into some bad berries? He didn't come to the conclusion that Max was just scared. 

Speaking of Max, he was still trying to get David to let him help him with anything. 

"I could help you with those stupid activities you make us do." He told him dancing around the subject David had originally called him in here for. He didn't want to admit that he thought he really did see a ghost. The fear on his face was clear, even if he was scowling. The scowl he never seemed to drop was faltering. He grabbed David's clipboard off of his desk pretending to scan it.

. . . David POV . . .

David had ignored Max’s statements, particularly the ‘I just fucking hate you.’ Yes, Max, David knew that you hate him. He knew it times a billion, a trillion, since the moment the kid had set foot on the campgrounds, a scowl on his face even then, he had hated the counselor with a passion. Why, David didn’t know. But he knew that he did, and therefore it seemed to justify all of the hate that he felt for David. It was unfortunate, really. Max was a good kid; he knew deep inside of it all that he wasn’t that bad. He was just… hard to get past. There was some kind of forcefield preventing David from seeing eye to eye with the child. And no matter how many heart to hearts he had with Max, the kid never took them seriously. 

It was a pity, really… David also ignored the next comment from Nikki, simply shooeing Max away from everyone, and then asking him the question in his office. The question had yielded the expected results. He didn’t see anything. He wasn’t crazy, he was clearly thinking. David knew that the child wanted to believe that his friends were pulling his leg, joking on him and then lying to protect the fact that they did it. But David didn’t think that they did it at all, in fact, he was rather curious as to the real culprit. Could it be Jasper? No… Jasper was doomed to haunt Spooky Island. But… what other ghosts even lurked around Camp Campbell? None that he knew of… thinking back to the old ghost stories, David attempted to think of one that fit the bill. None were found. 

David noticed the very brief flicker of fear in Max’s eyes. For a brief second, a brief moment, they widened and a softer side to the child that rarely ever came out showed, daring to peek its submissive head out from underneath a tower of negativity. It was fearful and it made David want to scoop the child into his arms and tell him that it was going to be okay. Though, he was absolutely sure that Max would punch him in the face and call him a pedophile for that. David sighed at the fact that /that/ was the first thing that came to his mind when he thought of how Max would react. 

‘I didn't see anything. I was only messing with you. Shut up now.’

David sighed again. He could tell that Max was lying. Quirking a brow, he shook his head and was about to speak. He was going to protest and say that he knew that he saw something and that he could help if he just let him, but Max spoke again. He didn’t want him to bug him about any more ghosts. Leave him out of his sick amusement, and just let him live out his shitty days at camp. David frowned at those statements and decided to leave it. If he didn’t want to share, then David wouldn’t push him to share. 

David was then surprised. Max was offering to… help? Help him with the activities? Albeit he did call them stupid… but just then David had an idea. To keep him from thinking about what had happened. He wanted Max to feel safe, and he could tell that he didn’t feel safe. He felt scared. One of the benefits of being able to ‘smell fear.’ Though fear didn’t really have a certain scent besides the adrenaline coursing through the body of the person who was afraid. 

David smiled as Max took the clipboard; on it was one of his personal documents about his rent, and if he didn’t pay it then he was going to be evicted, and blah blah blah from his landlord. Underneath that one was the camp activity sheet planning. He gently took the clipboard away and took the top document off before handing the thing back to Max. He folded the paper, and then he stuck it in a drawer. He didn't really want the young camper to see that. 

“Why don’t you design an activity for the rest of the day, Max?” he offered, “I’m sure you’ll have fun doing it. Make sure it’s appropriate but you can make it whatever you want,” he beamed, ruffling Max’s hair. 

. . . Max POV . . .

Max had gotten a quick glimpse of the part about being evicted before he had taken the clipboard away from him. He lifted his brow up at David, thinking. Did he think he hadn't seen that? He was traumatized by what he saw, but he wasn't blind to anything around him. David out on the streets? How did this make him feel? Honestly, he couldn't care less. Or, did he care the slightest? Nah. David deserved to see what the world was really like. Then he would know the pain and suffering of this world's god damn selfishness. 

He shrugged his shoulders, letting the thought of him not being able to make ends meet pass. Once the clipboard was placed back into Max's hands, he viewed the activity planning sheet. He let out a yawn to all of them that were listed. He never did like much of what David planned. Everything was a complete waste to his eyes. A spiritless look was met up with David's face when he had told him he could plan the activity. He swatted away at David's hands, his hair out of place after he had ruffled it. He let out a low groan, looking up at his messy hair. 

"Well, for starters. Fuck this!" He tosses the clipboard onto the ground tearing off the activity planning sheet. He formed the piece of paper into a ball in his hands throwing it at the counselor's head. The child would push it. He knew right away what David was probably going to say he needed to watch the language. And that was not appropriate. Or he would just stare at him with that dumb ass smile he wanted to smack off his face. What was the approved camp shit he could do? 

Raising both of his eyebrows in a bored manner, he shoved his hands back into his coat pockets tilting his head slightly at him. 

"Got some gunpowder lying around?" He wanted to shoot something. Shooting might take his mind off of the ghost. No! It wasn't a fucking ghost. It was his imagination. 

Outside of the office, the campers were still trying to figure out what was going on with Max. 

"Maybe he is really an evil wizard!" Came the voice of Nerris the cute, lifting up her glasses. She received a punch in the face from Nerf. 

"Stop jumping to your dorky conclusions. He was obviously abducted by an alien spaceship. It explains his bulging eyes." He folded his arms over his chest. Neil rolled his eyes at Nerf's assumption. 

"Aliens are not scientifically possible. If anything, we are the aliens." The other children gasp, mind blown by what he had said. 

"So...I was right! Max is an alien!" Nerf pointed out if they were all aliens, Max was also one. Neil wanted to facepalm. Fuck trying to reason with these people, he would go get Nikki and they would confront Max themselves. He walked over to where Nikki was kissing a tree. Also covered in the toilet paper that their friend had told them to wear. 

"Uh. Nikki, what are you doing?" She ran over to another tree pressing her lips against it. 

"I am trying to appease the sap ghost!" Neil blinked in response before pulling her away from the tree. 

"Max fucked us over, Nikki. He was never infected." Nikki took Neil by his shoulders shaking him. 

"That's not Max! He is possessed! You know Max doesn't believe in ghosts. He was acting pretty freaked, to be him." Neil had just let out a sigh knowing that he lost Nikki. 

He would have to go confront Max himself, 

. . . David POV . . .

“Language,” was all the counselor managed to say, waggling a finger at Max, though he honestly didn’t know why he kept it up. Max was never going to stop cursing; he had made that fact very clear on the first day of camp. And David was constantly chasing after the boy, chastising him lightly for his use of language and curses, and to be honest, David was getting rather tired of it. He could cuss all he wanted, though the camp rules dictated that there was no swearing allowed. Back in the day, it meant things like ‘dang’ and ‘hooey.’ He chuckled internally, only producing a tiny smile externally, as he remembered what a rotten little bastard he had been back in his camp days. 

The things he got up to… he was constantly torturing the other campers, sticking gum in their hair, pulling pranks. He was more like the cynical child than Max knew. But hopefully, Max found his turning point like he did at Camp Campbell. Though the counselor couldn’t really call it a turning point… he had turned out to become a failure of an adult looking after kids for three months of the year, forcing them to do outdoor activities when they clearly wanted to do nothing but go on their phones, and then working whatever job he could find the rest of the year. He supposed that he was what society called a ‘loser.’ Though nature had its perks. 

He was often out of touch with his ‘roots,’ as his mother had called them, and being in the forest, surrounded by trees and rocks and an array of wonderful smells was intoxicating. It made him want to live in the forest and give up on civilized life. And he definitely could, no problem. He’d have an easier time living in the woods than most. Though he’d probably get lonely. That was the main reason he stayed in touch with people. He liked them a lot, though no one really seemed to like him. 

His thoughts were broken by a piece of paper hitting him in the eye. 

“Owie,” he said, rubbing his eye with his palm, frowning, and then once he was done with that, he sighed and picked up the piece of paper responsible for his minor discomfort and unfurled it, setting it back on his desk. The clipboard came off of the ground as well, ending up on his desk too. 

“Max, I’m not giving you gunpowder. Gunpowder makes explosions and is used in guns and I am /certainly/ not giving any of you guns,” he made that one-hundred-percent certain, giving Max a look. Sometimes the Sheriff had to come down to Camp Campbell to clean up… let’s say, messes. Which he made clear, every time, that he was ‘tired of coming down here, David.’ But every time he still came. And when he did, he didn’t want Max getting any ideas whatsoever about the revolver holstered on the dark-skinned man’s belt. If he so much as touched it, David would not be very happy at all. 

“Why don’t we find a safe activity that you could all do? Like… hiking! Or swimming in the lake! Or making paper mache volcanoes,” he added chipperly, flashing the camper a toothy smile, his green eyes closed. 

“But I know you’re not going to like any of the things that I suggest, so why don’t I just let you decide?” he added, throwing up his hands in an indifferent shrugging kind of gesture. He grabbed another chair out of the corner of his office and then plopped down on it. 

“You can use my chair if you want,” he told Max, “It spins,” he offered as an attempt to get the kid to sit down and not try and throw pencils in his eye or something else of equal terror. 

. . . Max POV . . .

 

"Suck a dick!" Max would respond rolling his eyes. He also knew that he was not going to stop, or that David would stop trying to get him to behave. No matter how many times, Max would set the dial high on his patience, the counselor didn't seem to give up on him. Admittedly, he respected him for actually not giving up on him. The one thing his parents had been really good at his whole life. They never gave him much encouragement. He had to figure out everything on his own. He even had to learn how to cook things in the oven at a very young age, 4. 

The fire department had to come and put out the blazes that were rising all around the kitchen. Smoke clouded his parents and himself. Small tiny sounding coughs came from the little Max. His parents had fled from the house not checking if he was okay or rescuing him. The fire department had to end up getting a ladder to climb in to pull him out. He almost fucking died. Almost! And you know what, he wished he would of have. Then he wouldn't have to deal with being a damn misfortune to his parents. They could continue fighting with one another and not have to see his wide-eyed face. 

Eventually, his facial expression had changed completely to the one that David saw here at Camp Campbell. He had stopped giving any shits about anything. But that was not entirely true; when he had seen the crushed and distraught David trying to light that bonfire it reminded him whenever he would try to do something, his parents would not care. Maybe Max should be nicer to David but that just was not going to be. The way he was raised, it was hard for him to show a friendly side. He only knew how to insult and bring anybody down who had dreams. 

His thoughts were also broken hearing the pathetic response of David being in pain. Paper, really? That hurt? Jesus Christ, this guy needs to toughen up. He's lucky he didn't throw the clipboard at his foot which he was originally going to do but decided it was going too far. Like he cared, but he might get kicked out of his office for that. And, he honestly did not want to go back out there for a while. 

 

"That's the whole point, dumb ass." He pointed up at David with his usual hateful scowl. 

"Explosions are actually cool!" He gave a bored look arching one of his brows. His hands folded over his chest expressing no interest in the ideas he was giving him. 

"Those ideas just make me want to kill myself so I don't have to do them. Wow, David. You are starting to realize I don't care about that shit." He was trying to think of something that would not be stupid. Since David took away his really awesome idea, he needed to rethink what he wanted to do. At David's offer, Max still remains scowling climbing up onto the chair. He turned it slightly, his eyes cast down. It was hard for him to see the joy in much. He turned in a circle, still not so much as a smile. 

"Alright how about you get us jet boats? That's safe. " He had suddenly gritted his teeth scared remembering he would have to be outside for that near the woods. 

"On second thought, let's be kids and make mud pies." It wasn't exactly what he wanted to do but at least it was away from the outdoors. Fuck! They would have to get the mud from outside! 

"Maybe kite fly-" Shit! Another outdoor activity. 

"Okay, let's build something not lame. We could make a clubhouse." That was it! He would be outside but safe once they built it. That ghost must just live in the woods, he thought. It wouldn't come haunt him in a safe constructed wooden building. He glanced out the window for the third time today, seeing Space Kid out there still panicking over being covered with maple syrup. He picked at the tree bark and leaves on his own jacket flicking them onto the ground. He had to give good tugs to free the bark from the sappy prison.

. . . David POV . . .

“Thanks, Max, I’ve never heard that one before,” David, chuckled sarcastically, teasing good fun at the other camper. Maybe he could get him to be more creative with his swears; if he could get the kid to do anything, perhaps honing his foul language into something else was accomplishable. Though he didn’t think that the camper would take kindly to switching dick to doorknob or something else that David would have said. Shut the fuck up would not be turned into shut the front door. Oh, well. 

“I don’t care if explosions are cool,” David then said, his expression firm, “I will not have guns in the camp, and there will be no explosions. The forest could easily catch on fire and I would hate to have been the allower of something so dreadful,” he finished, and then he sighed. Back in the day, he would have loved to do something like that. 

‘Burn down the dang camp,’ as he would have proudly said in his squeaky, pre-pubescent voice. He then said nothing, ignoring Max’s comment about the lameness of his suggestions. David then sighed, watching the child turn in a circle on the spinning chair. Usually, kids loved to mess around on those. But Max didn’t give anything other than a scowl. 

 

“Well, I’d love to get you jet boats, but I’m afraid they’re rather costly and the camp doesn’t have that kind of funding,” David replied to Max’s suggestion, frowning slightly. He wished that he could get things like that for the campers; they’d be thrilled if that were to be one of their camp activities. Alas, it wouldn’t be. He remembered Camp Campbell’s earlier days, it was shiny and new and Mr. Campbell wasn’t gone all of the time. It had more money and better counselors and cheery campers… Old Camp Campbell was much better than the present ‘Camp Camp.’

When Max switched the subject to mud pies, David put on a grin and was happy to help them do that. It was easy and fun and it wouldn’t be a danger to anyone. Messes were bound to be made and campers were going to be coated with mud by the end of it but he didn’t care; a dip in the lake would get them nice and clean. It was something that he didn’t expect to come out of Max’s ideas, but it was a nice change from his usual suggestions of going and fucking themselves or going home or something along those lines…

“Kite flying would be a fun way to pass--” David started to react to the next suggestion, but was shut up by Max again. Suggesting another activity. David raised a brow. Was the child simply indecisive or was there a ‘freaked out’ component to this? He didn’t know. But Max at least settled on something. Something doable. 

“Okay, Max. We can build a clubhouse. I’ll have to fetch some wood planks and sealer from Sleepy Peak. And the good side of town, too, not the run-down section that’s closer to the camp. The Quartermaster has tools we can use. But I do need wood. So I’ll be gone a while. I’ve got to rent a truck to carry the supplies. Gwen is outside, why don’t you join the other campers while I make the run?” he offered with a smile, glad that Max had decided to focus his energy into something interesting and fun that could turn into a cool experience with the campers. Both building it and using it. Though he wasn’t sure what they would use it for. A clubhouse was vague, but he figured that he could just let them do what they want in there. It was going to be theirs, after all. 

David then started to exit his office, looking back expectantly for Max to follow him, “I’ll see you later today, then,” he turned back and decided that if the camper wanted to stay in his office for now, that was fine, “Don’t cause any trouble, Max. Please,” the counselor pleaded exasperatingly, and then he left, informing Gwen of the ‘situation.’ She was happy to watch the campers under one condition; any and all days including the building of the ‘stupid fucking tree house’ she had off without informing Mr. Campbell. David had agreed, being the cinnamon roll that he is. 

After that, he headed onto the road, the little award that he had carried fondly since childhood swinging from his rear-view mirror. He grinned, watching the trees pass by and the few cars there were. Sometimes he forgot how relaxing it could be just to drive and not have a worry in the world. The silence that encapsulated the car was very quickly turned into happy singing as David recited every camp song that he knew and then moved onto regular songs that he liked. And right at the end he decided to sing his favorite song of them all;

"OHHHHH~  
There's a place I know  
That's tucked away;  
A place where you and I can stay  
Where we can go to laugh and play,  
And have adventures every day!  
I know it sounds hard to believe  
But guys and gals it's true,  
Camp Campbell is the place for me and you!

"We'll swim through lakes and climb up trees;  
Catch fish, bugs, bears, and honeybees!  
There's endless possibilities  
And no,  
That's not hyperbole!  
Our motto's "CAMPE DIEM"  
And that means I'm telling you~

"We've got: Archery, Hiking, Search and Rescue, Biking, Horseback, Training that will save you from a heart attack, Scuba diving, Miming, Keeping up with rhyming, Football, Limbo, Science, Stunting, Pre-Calc, Spaceships, Treasure hunting, Bomb diffusal, No refusal, Fantasy, Circus trapeze, and Fights, and Ghosts, and Paints, and Snakes, and Knives, and Chess, and Dance, and Weights – It's Camp Camp!"

. . . Max POV . . .

He rolled his eyes not finding it amusing. It was supposed to make him feel inferior. Why didn't this guy break so easily? There had to be some weakness that he had. Tried it before. He ended up in a shit hole worse than Camp Camp. ...Did he just say that? Yep. He fucking did. Oh, and how could he forget he thought somebody as soft and not tough at all was going to kill him. He couldn't believe he had thought that way before. If anything, that ghost was going to be the one to remove the air from his lungs. Dammit, man. There is no ghost! Stop saying that and put it out of your mind. 

But no matter how hard he would try to think of something else, it remained. He let out a small groan trying to get David to believe he was just showing his irritation with him, which he was but he was also stressed. The camper was not a happy camper when David was explaining the reasons why he couldn't have gunpowder. He made no comment to anything David had said, only still scowling. It was useless with him. He knew David wouldn't go for it. He just sighed in response. At David's response to the jet boats, he arched up his brow. 

"How am I not shocked by this?" He got in his smartass mode, pushing it again with David, pretending to think about it. 

"Oh! That's right. This place sucks dicks." Still spinning in the chair, he had frozen at the mention of going back outside. He kept the same scowl repressing the fear that wanted to come out. He glanced at David as he was walking towards the exit. "David. Fuck doing that. I am not a fan of nature, like all of these other gay asses." 

Relief had swept over the child's face after David had allowed him to stay in his office. 

"Don't worry, David. I'll behave." He had that smile that was innocent yet sinister if you stared into the child's eyes, you could swear Hell was coming. He waved with a grin as he left. Snooping would definitely take his mind off of the ghost. He was sure that Gwen wouldn't notice what he was up to, having to deal with the idiotic antics of the others. 

"What lame stuff does he have stored away?" He asked himself as he placed his hand on the drawer's knob of the desk. He climbed inside of the drawer looking at pictures he had of the camp with him standing saluting the flag with that dorky smile. He tossed the framed glass picture hearing it shatter. Priceless. He also tossed aside smiley stickers that blew out of the office catching the attention of his friend Neil who had been looking all over for him. He turned hearing the door start to crack slightly. 

"Oh, shit!" There was no use in him hiding it. He stood by the open drawer. 

"Alright, Gwen. Start telling me how I am a little shit that shouldn't be going through people's private stuff. Even pathetic losers like David... Oh, it's you, Neil." Neil frowns noticing what he was doing. 

"Max, your not supposed to interfere in David's closet style life." Max made a face, blinking. 

"Wait. David is gay? I already knew that. What straight person walks around in shorts like that?" Neil was still frowning. 

"No. What I mean by closet lifestyle, is his private life. Oh man, you are going to make my anxiety kick in again. You have to stop." Max, as usual, did not listen to what his friend was saying. He continues to rummage around in the drawer. He snickers looking at love letters that he had written to Bonquisha before. 

"Oh my fucking god. Listen to this, 'Bonquisha, my precious Bon Bon, I was going to leave you some flowers on your doorstep but the thorns pricked my finger so I instead left you an I.O.U flowers.'" Neil was not having as much fun as Max, repeatedly looking back at the window afraid somebody would catch him. 

He soon came across the eviction paper again that David had folded earlier. He unfolded each side of it, reading the whole thing this time. 

"Poor pathetic David. I thought that Camps made a lot of money. I tell you, our economy is falling into the shitter." Neil shot his friend a shameful glare. 

"Put that back! You have no right to read it." Max was grinning. 

"You are right, Neil. I don't, that's what makes it more enjoyable." 

Nikki had burst into the door, tackling the sunshade skin kid down onto the wooden floor, meeting an annoyed glance from him. 

"Nikk! What the fuck are you doing! Get off me!" Nikki was glaring suspiciously looking him way too close in the eyes. 

"Give Max his body back!" Max shoved her off of him standing up. 

"....I don't know what's gotten into you and I have no idea what you are talking about. It is me." Nikki hissed, spitting slightly on his face. He wiped it off with his arm, growing more annoyed. 

"Neil do you know what's wrong with her?" Neil stepped over to where the hissing Nikki was standing. 

"She thinks that the ghost you made up is possessing you right now. This is why you should never mess with people like Nikki." Max ignored what Neil was saying, going back to looking through David's personal papers.

. . . David POV . . .

‘How am I not shocked by this?’

‘Oh! That's right. This place sucks dicks.’

‘David. Fuck doing that. I am not a fan of nature, like all of these other gay asses.’ 

Relief had briefly danced on Max’s face before he had said his next line. David thought that odd. 

‘Don't worry, David. I'll behave.’

Fat chance… 

David had given up answering the child’s words, because no matter what he said, he always ended up being insulted, berated with bad language, or outright ignored. So he left Max to his own devices in his office when he set off for Sleepy Peak. 

Inside of David’s drawers was a multitude of personal items. Some of them could be easily understood, like the sappy and pitiful letters to Bonquisha (which David really didn’t know why he kept), the pictures that were scattered among them that reminded him of his fond days of camp when he was younger, and the eviction notice. There was also an epi-pen, locked and ready to save his life if need be, but David hadn’t had to use one of those in forever, so he doubted he’d ever use it. It was there just in case, however. 

More boring items were scattered through the drawers and on top of the mess of papers; pens, pencils, smiley face stickers, and a bunch of other office supplies. Ridiculous amounts of sunscreen bottles were also in a separate drawer all to themselves. One could chalk it up to the camp man being overly cautious about safety from the sun. He also had a nail file and a spare pair of green contacts tucked neatly into a tiny clear box.

But others’ purposes were more obscure, like the pair of silver handcuffs that were in one of his drawers. They were beaten up and scratched, but they held fast. The key was resting on top of them, taped to the larger silver bit of one of the cuffs. The tape looked worn as if it had been taken off and then replaced many times. Next to the handcuffs was a reusable plastic sports water bottle with a sticky note on the side of it that read ‘For emergencies’ with a smiley face next to it. It contained dark red liquid. Both the cuffs and the water bottle were resting on top of a folded change of clothes that were much unlike his usual attire and were more normal and less dorky looking in appearance. The pants had a rip in them that looked as if it was caused by a bear’s claws or something of equal intimidating stature, and the shirt had a stain on it that looked like blood (David, of course, had yet to replace these clothes with a new pair that weren’t destroyed). 

Among the other items were pieces of paper that were scattered about, bearing notes and schedules of the campers, seemingly useless things that he needed to remember, like where he last hiked, and what kinds of flowers he saw, and there were also little doodles of animals and trees and the Camp Campbell flag. They weren’t too shabby, either. David had taken the liberty of collecting his artwork into a scrapbook, which he stored among the pictures and letters, so that none of it would be ruined. 

With all of these items left at Max’s disposal, David honestly didn’t know what he would end up doing in there. The counselor cringed as he realized that Max’s expression hadn’t been genuine. He was going to go back to camp and have his things rifled through. Oh, well…

Once he had gotten into the good side of Sleepy Peak, he grinned, seeing the hardware store that he had been looking for. This end of town was actually quite cute and had more cemented roads and everything. It was bigger, and it was out of the forest, so it wasn't shrouded in trees. There was more big-city development here; apartments, houses, a mall. But to get to this much development it was a bit far away from the camp. No matter. 

David pulled into the store’s parking lot and then he entered, first getting everything needed to build the clubhouse, and then renting a truck to carry it all back to camp. He would have to leave his car here, no matter, and when he returned the truck, he’d drive his vehicle back. It had been a solid three hours before David pulled back into campgrounds, the materials in the back of the truck. Gwen muttered an ‘oh thank God’ as she saw him, immediately looking relieved that she would no longer be the sole caretaker of a bunch of little shits. 

. . . Max POV . . .

Max was growing bored picking through every one of his items in the first drawer. He looked in the next drawer seeing the second drawer. This guy was not that exciting of a person to fuck with his personal life. He couldn't find any dirt. Where was the incriminating evidence of him being some dark weirdo? He was waaaaaay too nice. There must be something he was hiding from him. His eyes were huge with excitement when he had seen something that looked like it could be a potential needle. 

"Okay, this is a needle. But not what I was expecting." Like with all the other stuff, he threw the epi-pen. It had landed into the brush by the force of Max's fired up shot. He was angry, that David had nothing he could use against him. Only those letters. But everybody already knew David was a loser. What good was that?! He held a hand on his forehead letting out a sigh. His two friends were watching them, one looking on in disapproval while the other had been distracted by the epi-pen flying past. 

"Nikki hunt! Rrrgh. Rrrgh. I am a wolf!" She crawled on her hands and knees hopping out of the window to fetch the pen. Max had actually turned her way, a look of fear on his face. She was going into the woods. He didn't care if any of the other campers had gone missing, but Nikki was one of his friends. The one he liked more. Because she wasn't all boring. Neil was a bit of a kill-joy for him. He glanced back at the next drawer ignoring that his friend could possibly be in some danger. He couldn't take going back in there. Then again, Nikki did accuse him of being possessed. Karma, maybe? Karma was a bitch. 

He shook his head, going back to rummaging. He had turned his head away from the drawer expecting to find something lame again. His hand had landed on something cold that sounded like a chain. 

"Hey, what do we have here?" He said when he had yanked it out, the cuffs jingling back and forth in front of his meadow hues. He ripped at the tape peeling the key off of the large ring of the cuff. This might come in handy for something. He pocketed the cuffs storing the key inside one of his blue hoodie pockets. 

 

His eyes shifted to an emergency water bottle with that signature happy face of his. He had rolled his eyes at first but soon discovered it wasn't an ordinary bottle of water. The substance in it looked red. He had slowly looked away from it making an uneasy face. What was that poison? Actually, no. It looked a lot like blood. He would not make that mistake again of thinking David wanted to kill hi- wait. Could he of killed somebody here and covered it up? Doubt ran through his mind, pssh. David wasn't capable of doing anything that could hurt someone. He wouldn't even let him use the gunpowder. The next item he had laid eyes on changed his facial expression completely to one of pure surprise. 

"This is a change of image." He pushed the shirt aside and after eyeing what looked like a splotch of blood, he glances at the pants. He must have torn these when he was sewing or some other likely reason. He took the being attacked off the table since he didn't see David as much as the type who would get into a scrap with wild animals. 

 

"I really think you should put everything back before somebody catches you in the act." Neil bit his lip, glancing at the exit. 

"Jesus, Neil. Why don't you calm down? This opportunity to snoop doesn't come around that often." Neil had said nothing in response, knowing his friend would not listen to him still. 

He narrowed his eyes studying David's attire. Did he murder Chucky? A paranoid thought came into his mind. His eyes bulging at the potential truth. Did he poison his potatoes? Okay. Those potatoes were already poison but you get the picture. He grabbed Neil by the hem of his shirt. 

"We might be dealing with a suspect of homicide! Check it." He held the red liquid up to him. Neil inched away slightly scared. 

"What the f-f-fuck is that?" Max's fear was pasted all over his face now. 

"It must be Chucky's blood! Either David or Mr. Campbell killed him. I am going to go out on a limb here and say, Mr. Campbell." Max's paranoia was getting much worse. He was considering cuffing David with his own cuffs to the flagpole just to get the truth out of him. Neil felt sick at the thought. David is covering for Mr. Campbell. Max had a feeling. His thoughts were cut short hearing David's car engine. 

He walked over to the window, narrowing his eyes deeply, watching David, placing a hand into his pocket, and slowly pulling out the cuffs.

. . . David POV . . .

David parked the truck next to the flagpole and then he glanced over at Gwen with a rather large smile. She had herded most of the campers into the area between the lake and the forest, letting them do whatever they please from there. Most of them were simply running around, doing whatever came to mind. He heard curse words from Gwen, coupled with telling them to behave. He sighed. A few were actually behaving, however. Erid, Harrison, and Dolph were the only ones that weren’t trying to kill each other or hurt each other or run around like a madman. 

He was sure that Gwen was happy that she had a total of three campers behaving… he couldn’t count all of them, however. He assumed that Neil and Nikki had found their way into his office as well, seeing as there was no sign of them and Max appeared to still be in there. 

The counselor opened the door of the truck and stepped out, making his way over to Gwen, who immediately gave him a devious look and asked;

“Are you going to be starting on this ridiculous project today?”

To which David replied, “Yes! I hope to get started as soon as possible so that the campers can utilize the built structure as much as they can until camp ends.”

“Well, see you later, then, David,” she closed her eyes and put a hand on his shoulder, grinning, “Time to start my own personal paid vacation.” 

And then she left him to his own devices, walking merrily back to her cabin, where she could kick back and relax while watching drama television and painting her nails. Oh, David was such a gullible idiot. She grinned as she reached the cabin, entered, and then slammed the door. David smiled lightly and then he sighed. He wouldn’t be seeing Gwen for a while…

But no matter. He had campers to attend to! First and foremost, he needed to retrieve the missing three, so he headed for his office with a tiny warning to the others that if they tried anything they wouldn’t get to participate in a fun new activity coming up. He caught the sight of Max’s face behind the window, a disapproving look on his features. David could only wonder what he did wrong this time… Once he reached his office, he entered it and immediately frowned. His things were strewn across the floor, and drawers clearly rifled through. He calmly went over to pick up his shattered picture frame and then he looked at the picture fondly, moving to set it back into his drawer. Nothing was said to the kids that he found inside of his office. He then calmly looked at Max. 

“Max, these are my things. I left you here with the thought that you weren’t going to mess with them. You have no right to touch my pictures, much less break them, and you can’t take my--” he paused for a moment, seeing Max with the bottle and the drawer that held some of his more personal items open. He sighed, moving to take it from the young boy. He then shoved it back in the drawer quickly, hastily checking to make sure that all of his things were there. His mind was a jumble of things at the moment, so after counting the clothes and the blood and the bottle of pills with the label ‘friends’ that was stashed under the clothes (thankfully the camper hadn’t gotten into those) he didn’t notice that his cuffs were missing. He closed the drawers, distraught, the flushes of embarrassment on his face. 

“Please don’t violate my privacy like that again, Max. Neil,” he whipped around to face the other child, “I hope you weren’t looking through my things as well,” and he searched around briefly for Nikki. He could tell that she had been in here recently; her scent still rang strong in the air, but she was gone at the moment.

“Where is Nikki?” he asked, “I’m going to inform everyone of your idea, Max, once we actually have everyone in one place,” he then took a quick glance out of the window to make sure that the other campers were still fine. 

. . . Max POV . . .

Max's scowl was immediately deepened with the arrival of David. 

"Well. Why did you leave them where I could easily get to them? You could have stored these in a private place. Seriously the hell, David? The drawer? When there are little bastards around like me you should expect this. I am disappointed you don't know me by now." He wasn't really, he was just being a little shit as always. Oh, he would be dealing with this shit from him alright about the bloody clothes and poison. For now, he just remained scowling, looking down as the suspicious items were taken from his hands. He kept his gaze at the counselor studying him for a hint of guilt. All he could see on his face was a sheepish look. 

He glanced at Neil, not defending him when he had said to David he wasn't involved. He tried to get Max to stop. 

"That's not what I would worry about David." Wide angry eyes eyed the back of David's head. Max was not thinking clearly, he picked up an umbrella he saw leaning against the wall. An umbrella? As weak as David was and easy to take down, there was no way this was going to get the job done. He searched around whilst David was asking him about Nikki. He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. 

"She went after your EpiPen." The child had responded like it wasn't that big of a deal he had thrown something that David could seriously need if he was gasping on the floor holding his throat turning blue. He let the umbrella drop out of his hands deciding he wouldn't knock him out in here. Or probably not at all. He would just get the other campers to help him like he had in the past.

...Right. They hated him now. He could easily manipulate them again he thought. This child had moved to fucked up territory in his mind. The existence of ghosts and the proof just made him way too paranoid. An iniquitous smile spread across his face about him informing everyone. That would be his perfect chance to strike. His friend raised his eyebrow noticing the look of him ready to harm somebody or something. He hoped it wasn't him. 

 

He had waited for David to move out towards the door, following behind with the cuffs tucked away deep down in his pockets. He kept them out of view so David wouldn't question him or see it coming. His sneaky smile was growing even more when David had mentioned what they would be doing. He waited until he had explained the details and all. After he got out his last sentence, abruptly he pointed up at David. 

"David is making everyone give up their Saturday!" He exclaims lying to get the other campers attention. 

"What? Oh! That is not cool! Ass munch." Came the reply from Camp Campbell's bully pounding a fist into his palm. 

Max grins, at more protest coming from the other campers. They soon had started to riot coming towards David. 

Nice going, Max. You have caused yet more trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I live for comments and criticism, thank you.


	3. The Flagpole

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max gets hurt. Here's where it gets sad, and cue in David being a protective bean who just wants to be here for his son.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am aLIVE oh my goodness! I have been procrastinating on this story for so long. Well! Here we go. I couldn't do anything with piecing together the parts into a seamless story no matter how hard I tried, so sorry about that.

. . . David POV . . .

David had pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head. He then told Max, “I trusted you not to go rifling through my things, Max. That’s usually what leaving someone somewhere that has your personal belongings means. That you /trust/ them not to take or go through your things. Max, you’ve betrayed my trust,” he finished, a bit sadly, his hand falling back down to his side, and then he placed both of them on his hips.

“Perhaps I don’t, Max. But I trusted you not to do at least this…” he sighed.

“What should I be worried about then, Ma--” David paused, taking a breath and then shaking his head, “And why would my EpiPen be anywhere other than safely put away in my drawer? You know I could seriously need that one day. My allergen is a pretty popular ingredient in a lot of things. Just…” he paused, “Just make sure Nikki brings it back…” he really didn’t know what to say to that. 

“Alright. Well, let’s go and tell the other campers what you’ll be doing for the next two weeks or so. Come on, Max. Neil,” he ushered the two out of his office, closing the door behind him and then guiding them back over to the majority of the ‘herd.’ He glanced around for a moment; Nikki wasn’t there. He assumed that she had found a squirrel or something to chase, and he figured that someone would fill her in on what they were going to be doing soon. If not, he would tell her himself. And then he would be sure to ask about his epinephrine. 

“Okay! Camp Campbell campers, I have a very important announcement to make!” he grinned, his usual cheery charisma returning after the discovery that Max had been misbehaving. He honestly should have expected it, “Camp Campbell is getting a brand new clubhouse! Idea courtesy of one of our very own valued campers. Now,” he held up a finger, grinning, “The clubhouse is special because I have decided that you campers get to decide exactly what you want it to be. And it can serve several different purposes. I have one rule, however; be nice! Share the clubhouse and respectfully decide what to do with it. And you can even switch its purpose. It can be a fort, or a lounge area, or whatever you want it to be. Just clean up after yourselves and be as courteous as possible. Other than that, it’s yours to do whatever you want with!” David’s contagiously happy face grew happier. 

“Now, of course, I know what you’re all thinking. I don’t see a clubhouse anywhere. Well, that’s the fun part. We get to build it! I have the plywood and plaster, the Quartermaster has the tools, which I am sure he’ll be happy to lend us as long as they are treated with care and respect, and we all have the eagerness and ability to make this a great bonding exercise and have the finishing product be a fun and exciting place to spend time. I want to get started on this as soon as possible, and I’m sure all of you do too, so why don’t we get started and have some real Camp Campbell-style fun?” he swung his fist in front of his chest in camaraderie, closing his eyes and then pointing over to the truck. Just then, Max made an interjection. He should have known that the ten-year-old was going to cause trouble… Oh, my… 

David gulped, seeing the angry mob of kids start to advance on him. He never thought that he would be afraid of a bunch of children, but he knew that these were no ordinary children… god, it’s a wonder they haven’t killed him already. They just might. Those troublesome knives that Nurf always insisted on stabbing or threatening to stab him with were made of silver. Speaking of knives, the violent child had a few out at the moment…

“Okay, everyone, let’s just calm down…” David had backed up into a tree, “That’s not true! I’m not making anyone give up their Saturday! I simply thought a fun camp activity would be a nice way to spend the time, we don’t have to work on it on the weeke--” he was shut up by Nurf throwing Space Kid at him, who he caught with a surprised look on his face. The universe-loving child then proceeded to yell and then start hitting him (though very softly…) on his head. David, of course, reacted strongly, screaming himself and scrabbling to get the kid, who was now clinging to his face, off of him. The rest of the riot wasn’t really sure what to do at this point. They just stared and watched Space Kid render David powerless. They could tie him up to the flagpole again while he was preoccupied with the other Neil and then have the camp to themselves… Gwen wouldn’t even notice. None of them really knew what to do at the moment, however, and that was just a murmured thought that flitted across their tongues and minds. 

. . . Max POV . . .

The sunshade child folded his arms over his chest rolling his eyes to the side. He had nothing to say to David except this, "Oh! Your talking to me about trust? Fuck you, David." 

He was angry. David had no right to accuse him of betraying his trust, which yeah he did but. That was not his point. He was just a kid. David was supposed to be being a role model for these idiots and him. 

"Hiding secrets from us? Your one to fucking talk." He had muttered to himself. He was about to open his mouth to say something to his question, almost blowing his plan. Luckily, David was focused on his stupid EpiPen. He rolled his eyes still not caring about David's status of health. 

"Fine. Let's get the fuck out of this place." Neil stayed a few steps back away from Max, not sure what he was up to. 

 

Max's grin stayed plastered on his face watching the campers attack. He was more the brains of the operation in this kind of thing. He let the other campers wear David down. His expression had soon turned to one of surprise. His mouth slightly open with an eyebrow arching up watching Space Kid take David down. 

"God damn. I didn't know Space Kid had that kind of hostility in him," Max had the same kind of thought, only he wasn't going to tie him up. And he was going to get some fucking answers. He took the handcuffs out of his hoodie going around the other rage-filled campers over to where Space Kid and the traitor was. That was Max's opinion. With a scowl, he had hooked the cuff to the flagpole attaching the cuff ring to David's wrist. He revealed the key once he was not within range of David's grip. He twirled the keys around on his fingers pacing back and forth. 

"So, David. If that is even the real name you go by. What are you doing with a bottle of poison?" He looked ready to strike with his hand if he said anything about denying it. He wanted the fucking truth. Max was at high level paranoid. Not only did he think David was hiding that he murdered Chucky, but he also thought one of the campers were in on it. He wasn't sure which one it was yet. He would deal with the campers after he got what he wanted out of David. He stared down as a pine cone had been lying beside his foot. His eyes widening and gritting his teeth.

"Get the fuck away from me!" He gave it a swift kick into the woods. He didn't trust nature right now. Neil noticed how Max was behaving. That was not normally how he acted. It was making him anxious wanting to go back into their tent. Max noticed his friend staring at him frowning. 

"What?! Neil?" He had snapped, getting in his face. Neil had shrunk back at Max's aggressive behavior, "Is there something you need to talk about Max?" Max grabbed him by the hem of his shirt as he did earlier. 

"I am trying to interrogate David, Neil! I don't need you to give me some therapy shit!" Neil was becoming more concerned. He had to pull Max together somehow or somebody else could, preferably. Max shoved him onto the ground turning back to where David was. 

 

"I want some answers, David! Do not give me the 'it's not what you think Max' reply!" He exclaims assuming he was going to respond to him in some way like that. The other campers were disturbed by the approach he was taking to this. Actually, they didn't know what he was talking about since he and Neil were the only two who had discovered the bottle of red liquid. Dolf was interested in the poison. Unsettling really. Max froze suddenly, he heard a low moan come from the brush. 

"Nikki?" He felt uneasy hoping it was her and not the ghost. The moaning got louder. Shit. 

"Okay, you can drop the whole zombie persona and just come out." The moaning was cut off by the sound of a wail of anger.

. . . David POV . . .

David wasn’t sure what was happening at the moment, he was being blinded by Space Kid, and then he felt a tug on his wrist. He thought that it might be another one of the campers attempting to hurt him or tackle him down to the ground to dogpile on him like they had before when he felt something tight and cold around his wrist. David pulled on it and found that he was now attached to the flagpole. Swatting at Space Kid, he gritted his teeth and managed to pull the child off of him, holding him by the scruff of his shirt out in front of him as he wiggled and yelled at him for taking away their Saturday. 

“Okay!” he then said loudly, causing a few of them to be quiet for a moment, “I am /not/ making anyone give up their Saturday! In fact, you all can do whatever you want on Saturday! I’ll even give you phones to play on, just LEAVE ME ALONE, please,” he breathed, ready to climb up the damned flagpole. They had stopped now, and he looked around at the sea of victorious faces in defeat. He then looked down at his wrist that was cuffed to the flagpole; his cuffs! They had been gone. But he was too big a dimwit to notice. And who else would craft such a plan other than…

Max. The sunkissed boy strutted out in front of him, twirling the keys on his finger. He should have known. David was now closing his eyes and taking a breath just to regain his composure. 

“Max, my real name is David, I assure you,” he pinched the bridge of his nose in slight irritants, “And I have no poison. I don’t even know what you’re talking abou--” he paused, realizing that Max had found his emergency bottle and that he chalked the substance inside of it up to being poison. Oh, dear. 

“It’s not poison, Max,” he sighed, “It’s… not poison. I…” he didn’t know what to say. The truth wouldn’t be any better than that.

“Max, how about you just unlock the cuffs and we can go and talk about this, okay?” he offered softly, “Somewhere else, Max?” he nudged, looking at the unruly-haired child with a concerned look on his face. He was concerned with the fact that the kid was behaving irrationally. Kicking the pinecone into the woods, throwing his friend down to the ground… David was very concerned. 

“Max, calm down! And it really isn’t. It’s not what you think, it’s not!” he was growing worried that Max would hurt someone. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t… He tugged at his wrist, the chain tinkling and scraping against the flagpole and his wrists, but it held fast. He cursed the damn handcuffs. They were serving their purpose well, but not at the right time. At least he knew that they were still sturdy…

David would have perked his ears up if he could at the moment, hearing a groan coming from the bush. He stopped tugging at the cuffs and stared at it, head slightly tilted and eyes alert. The hair on the back of his neck was standing up. There was no smell in the air; an alarming thought crossed his mind. What if Max wasn’t just frightened of his overactive imagination? Instantly all thoughts of irritation towards anyone were dropped and replaced by a strong protective instinct. Iron. He needed to get something that was made of iron. If this was a spirit then the only two things that could ward it off were iron and salt. Salt wasn’t an option at the moment, he couldn’t even get into the kitchen. He glanced around the camp, searching for something that was made of iron… anything! His mind wandered to the Quartermaster. He had tools. A spade would be most preferable. While Max was distracted by the noises coming from the bush, David gently grabbed the back of Neil’s shirt and tugged him closer to him. 

“Neil, you’re a logical kid, right? You can clearly tell that there’s something not right here. With Max or otherwise. Please, do something for me? I need you to get a spade from the Quartermaster. Please,” he asked him, eyes wide, “Please?”

. . . Max POV . . .

"Shut up! You know exactly what i am talking about!" 

Frustration was apparent in the dark skin toned boy's meadow green eyes. Without warning, a hand struck across the man's cheek when he took too fucking long to answer him. By the way, if you could even call David a man, with all of the sensitivity shit he had. He was impatient. 

"If you want the key, you are going to have to grow some balls and fess up to Mr. Campbell poisoning Chucky!" The concern on David's face only got Max more fired up. It was that same look everybody had been giving him today. As if he was out of his mind and going crazy. 

"No! I want everybody to hear just what a sick bastard you are. All this time, I thought you were so happy and not that bad which really pissed me off. Now I have undeniable proof! You were on his side all along! " He clenched his fist against his hoodie, gritting his teeth. The other campers let out gasps of shocks and scattered opinions. 

"I will not calm down until I have justice for Chucky! You murdering asshole. Well, you might as well be. Whose your next victim to hand over to Campbell? Me? Neil? Space Kid? One of the others names I can't think of right now because I am too fucking pissed!" He slapped him again, which honestly that was normal. Max was always slapping him when he got annoyed. David didn't really stand up for himself, so it was easy for him to be so cruel to the poor counselor. He was glad that the handcuffs kept him restricted. It made it easier for him to make sure he didn't go anywhere. 

Max felt very uneasy still frozen in place, the wails were getting closer. Dammit, Dammit! Ghosts are not real! This was some hoax! Or was it? He honestly did not want to believe what he was hearing. The campers talked so much about that maple trail pine cone bullshit that he was almost sure that it was all in his head. 

"Which of you are fucking messing with me?" He had stopped paying any attention to David, his eyes now on all of the campers who were also staring towards the brush. 

"Nobody is messing with you, at least not that I know of," Harrison spoke up for the other campers. Max twitches pointing a finger up at him accusingly. 

"So you just admitted it was you! You sound like you're covering your ass," Paranoia, anger, fear were mixed emotions of the child. Harrison had objected to Max's accusation telling him he couldn't do magic to that level yet. Max still didn't believe him. Neil who was watching his friend, his eyes now directed towards David. A look of pure fear on his features. 

"There is something definitely going on with Max," He agreed with a nod. He glanced at Max who was still shouting after he asked him to get the spade. He wasn't sure if Max would do anything to him with the way he was acting. "Alright, I'll help you. Anything to get out of this shitty situation." 

He could already imagine that Max would not be pleased, calling him a traitor. 

Neil had walked behind the cabin sneaking off while Max was distracted. He searched the parameter for the QuarterMaster. He stumbled upon him near the dock staring down into the water mumbling words under his breath. 

"One of these days. One of these days. I won't have to deal with all of you," Neil had backed away slowly, uncomfortable with the words he was saying. He wasn't even going to ask about the bag of nuts he had by him labeled squirrel remains. Were those actual... never mind he didn't want to know. He took a deep breath getting the courage to talk to him. The Quarter Master's neck cracked as he turned his head in the direction of Neil. He didn't say anything, only staring at him. Neil grew more uncomfortable. 

"Uh, hey. Do you have a spade I could borrow? I need to keep my friend's sanity." 

The Quarter Master's mustache moved as he responded, "Sure," He dug one out of his brown jacket handing it to Neil who didn't want to know why he had it with him either. "Uh...thanks." He had run back to the madness that Max was unfolding. 

 

"N-N-None of you are doing this?! Oh, fuck! Damn! Shit!" Max was freaking out, in his way. Cursing. His fear was very clear now. He pulled at his poofy locks that were frizzing up from anxiety. 

"Max," Somebody had whispered, but it was not any of the campers. His eyes had grown huge biting his bottom lip. 

"Who the f-f-uck are you?" 

"Somebody you have disturbed," The voice whispers back. 

"Explain disturbed," Max frowns feeling watched. 

The wind had picked up blowing the trees harshly. They didn't answer him. 

"D-D-David!" He stuttered, backing himself up against where the flagpole was. 

. . . David POV . . .

David’s eyes grew wide, “Max! I had no part in Chucky’s incapacitation. It was an unfortunate accident but he was not murdered! He isn’t even dead! He was sent home, Max,” David was concerned for the camper’s mental health at the moment. The talk of ghosts and the finding of the peculiar items in David office (which, admittedly, he should have hidden better) was making him flighty. 

“Max. I haven’t… I haven’t murdered anyone,” he said, faltering in the middle because that statement brought back painful memories and was, in fact, a lie. Max’s slap across his face didn’t deter his thoughts; he didn’t murder Chucky, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t murder anyone else. He was lying through his teeth and he felt so horrible about it; so much so that tears pricked in his eyes. David swiped at them. Max probably thought that he was crying because of his slap. But it was for another reason. He had been young and inexperienced. Didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know how to do it either, and he had no one to show him. Images of hungrily ripping open that man’s carotid artery and then freaking out because he couldn’t stop the bleeding ran rampant through his mind. 

“I’m not a murderer!” David gathered his composure, “I have never conspired with Mr. Campbell to kill anyone. Max, you are confused. You’re afraid and that’s okay,” he held up his hand attempting to reassure the child. 

“I would never hurt any of you. I promise you that, Max. Please just calm down and think about this.”

David remained unable to do much as Max accused Harrison of messing with him. No, it was none of the campers. It was the spirit that everyone proclaimed didn’t exist. When this was done with and he sent everyone else into the mess hall for dinner, as it was growing darker every minute, he was going to have a private talk with Max. And he was going to make him talk; no bullshit this time. David knew that he was being plagued with one of the dead and honestly just wanted to help. 

Once Neil delivered the spade, the counselor gingerly took it from him with a ‘thank you,’ and then he pulled on the chain connecting him to the flagpole and stabbed the middle of it, causing a link to fail and him to come free, though he still had one end of the handcuffs around his wrist. David immediately flipped the spade around into a position one would use to fight with and stepped in front of Max, who was undoubtedly terrified, as he had backed himself up due to the unnaturally swaying trees and the wind that was now thrashing about. The other campers were growing scared as well, moving to hide behind each other due to confusion. 

David took a calm step forward, eyes searching for the paranormal apparition. Due to his own inhuman genetics, he was able to see it without it wanting to be seen. He thought back to the two times that he had dealt with spirits, and one thing stood out to him. This one did not look like it was satisfied with remaining in the living world. It seemed… disoriented. Scared. Angry. Bad traits for a ghost. 

Usually, spirits were lingering around because they were dissatisfied with the way that they died, or there was something in the living realm that they couldn’t let go of. These spirits were content with being a ghost. They looked much like Jasper, relatively happy and relatively safe. They didn’t attack unless provoked and they were usually just eager to make friends. But these spirits were few and far between; most spirits moved on into the afterlife. They could not come back from there. And then there were the indecisive ones that were stuck. They were tucked away in a realm between the living and the dead; the Veil. Only when one is ripped from the Veil can it be seen by those on the living plane. And unfortunately, it seemed that Max had pulled this ghost from its home. Ghosts that are unwillingly released into the world like that were usually violent, confused, and afraid. They were like a wounded animal; attacking everything and anything because they felt cornered and scared. So they must be dealt with in delicate manners. Quick and direct. 

“What has Max done,” David spoke, though it wasn’t a question, more of a demand. But it wasn’t harsh. It was comforting, and gave a distinct impression that David wanted no more than to remedy the situation, “However he’s disturbed you, it can be undone. You can go back to living in the Veil. Back to what you know; I understand that you’ve been ripped from contentment by the disruption of a worldly object. Please tell me,” David said softly, “I don’t want to have to use forceful measures, but if you continue to harass my campers I will not remain passive. You’re scaring them.”

The trees swayed more violently, and wailing was once again heard from the brush. David's grip on the spade became more secure, and he took a step forward, his narrowed eyes losing all cheeriness and happiness that they held, and he was slightly frowning, baring subtle fangs. David was usually a happy-go-lucky person, but when it came to the safety and well-being of his campers, he did not play. 

“Let me help you leave this world, or I will kill you again.”

. . . Max POV . . .

Max remains backed against the flagpole, his hair blowing in the fierce wind. Why was the ghost after him? He didn't do anything! Not that he could think of, anyway. He just tricked all the campers into thinking he had been attacked. He watches David trying to speak to it. Admittedly, he was worried the ghost might do something to the counselor. Max as he has stated before, wasn't a monster. He had let go of his dark thoughts of David killing anyone. He lifted his head to autumn leaves being swept into a small tornado. Nikki had popped her head out of the shrub holding up the EpiPen in victory, oblivious to the ghost causing disruption. 

"Found it!" She walked out over to where the scared campers were, including Max. Max's eyes were wide and fearful. What did they want out of him? A small voice had been heard, once David asked the question. 

"He has disgraced the pine cone. The pine cone that had saved us from a life of torment!" Max blinked. A sudden scowl appearing on his face. His mouth opened showing his irritation. 

"...Are you fucking kidding. A pine cone?! This is all over the pine cone I threw at Space Kid! Get over that shit. They are just stupid pine cones!" His gaze was now on David who he had looked on in shock at. What the fuck. That's still David, isn't it? The ghost did not seem to take kindly to David's threat. 

"Kill us again? We could kill you!" They weren't aware David was something unnatural. 

 

Max didn't help matters, further infuriating the ghosts by throwing more pine cones. Doing it just to get on their nerves. 

"Let's see how you like being hit with pine cones or better yet. Being a victim of the maple trail!" The ghost exclaims. Max's fear had dyed down. Slightly. This ghost was upset over something that fell off of a tree! Speaking of trees, one was tilting where he stood. It was about to collapse on him, but Neil had tackled his friend out of the way. 

"Jesus fuck! That ghost is serious about this." Max didn't know what to say. He was sorry? Not a chance. He would not be willing to say anything. Guess he was dying today. 

"You don't want to wake our counselor from his slumber. He is worse than Cameron Campbell," The ghost warns the child who rolls his eyes. 

"Whoa, whoa. Our?" 

Another voice that sounded much gruffer piped in. "Me. I am Lulu's best friend. I don't appreciate your rudeness and disrespect for what we worked hard to do." 

Max arches his eyebrow, these ghosts were making no sense to him. 

"Worked hard to do what? Make your camp smell like pine cones? Collect them? I don't get you, idiots. What is so fucking special about them?" Now, he was really pushing it further. The tornado of leaves had grown stronger blowing more into the whirlwind. 

"We made our counselor disappear with the power of pine cones," Max couldn't help but start laughing at them holding his chest. 

"S-S-S-orry, did you just say the power of?! I can't even to begin to tell you how fucking dumb that sounded!" The ghosts were ready to drag him back into the brush. This child was not easy for them to deal with. 

"DO NOT INSULT US," Cold chills had swept over every single one of the camper's shoulders. Max got a much more special delivery of being slammed hard onto the pole. He groans, scowling at the air. Not sure where they were. 

"Ow! Shit!" His face was red angry. The rest of the campers were freaking out over this ghost basically harassing Max, even if he did deserve it. The back of Max's head felt warm, and as if sweat was dripping. He moved his hand over the spot that was throbbing. Pulling his hand away with a hiss, he looked at his hand that now had blood all over it. 

"You made me bleed! Just the hell kind of gh-" He didn't want to say the word, "people are you?" He was refusing, even still to acknowledge they were not among the living. 

"We are kids, like you. But we are not normal kids. We have practiced Voodoo. We didn't have dolls, so instead, we made our own with pine cones. They were successful in making our counselor disappear into another vortex but sadly he had died along with us. Those pine cones had chosen us to wield the control we had over past campers," The gruffer one had said, who had the name Liam. However, they didn't choose these kids. They had drunk arsenic out of guilt dying of poisoning. Max was holding his throbbing head, no change of expression. He only had anger. These kids were fucked up and made everyone think he was crazy. The part that really pissed him off.

. . . David POV . . .

David was distracted for a moment when Nikki came out of the shrubbery with his EpiPen, and though he was glad that she had found it, he had more important matters to attend to. Pine cones. So that’s what this was about. And Max did not like that… still, one should never disgrace a ghost’s chosen object, even if that object is something as odd as a pine cone. Every ghost had its reasons for choosing that object, and he was sure that this one had its reasons. 

“Max couldn’t have known that it was that particular pine cone he was ‘disgracing.’ I am sure that this is all a big misunderstanding. And yes. I will kill you again,” David’s demeanor went from attempting to remedy the situation to threatening again, “You couldn’t kill me if you tried.” 

His demeanor remained on threatening as the tree crashed down, almost flattening two of his campers. 

“Hey! You’ve crossed a line. Do /not/ hurt my campers,” David growled again, moving to swing the iron spade at the first apparition. It dissipated as he swung with a light screech, and then appeared in another spot a bit further away from David. He gave it a look that said ‘yes, I know your weaknesses.’ 

He looked back at Max as he spoke again. At the rate that this was going, it was not going well. Someone was going to end up hurt; that made him anxious and protective. These ghosts didn’t seem to think that their pine cone thing was stupid, and Max sure did. That made this dangerous. Max wasn’t taking this seriously. A slight chill ran down David’s back for a moment; thermokinesis. The ability to control temperature. One of a spirit’s many abilities. Since his own body temperature was much lower than the campers’, he didn’t feel it too much. It was like a light wind gust, nothing more. But they looked terrified, so he thought that it must be a pretty intimidating thing to them. Curse those ghosts for frightening his campers! 

And then his eyes widened as he saw Max slam back. 

The distinct, tantalizing smell of Max’s blood hit David’s nose and he instantly narrowed his eyes further than they were before. Now, David wasn’t one to induce violence, and his next act was definitely violent; it was a pager of hostility against the dead, but Max was injured. They had hurt one of his campers, one of the kids that it was his job to protect. That could not be forgiven. Any and all chance of negotiation had just been thrown out of the window. Mr. Nice Guy was gone, and this left a rather irritated side that David rarely showed to come stomping out of its hiding place. This was a side of David best left locked away, or so he thought himself. His usual, passive manner didn’t take too kindly to his actions at the moment, but he really couldn’t bring himself to care in the least bit. An immense protective instinct washed over him, and he couldn’t care less if the campers saw or heard him doing what he was going to do. All that mattered was their well being, which was in danger at the moment. So he opened his mouth to incant. 

“Scio etiam voodoo, nothi estis. Quod mali spiritus, ad quos eieci te de loco isto. Vobisque notum hic. Non grata. Relinquam in vobis sit et quod non aliud finis tibi. Vos iram. Et abiit, idest daemones!” David growled out, the words rolling off of his tongue effortlessly and his eyes glowing faintly. The simple warding should put the ghosts out of commission for a bit, though their presence here was strong. This was the place where they were most connected; therefore it was going to be immensely hard to get rid of them with simple chants or verses, no matter how holy they were claimed to be. That was simply Latin, nothing really special about it. The words hadn’t been blessed nor was it a phrase from a Holy Book. Nothing except David’s willpower had been conjured up there. But thankfully, it seemed to be enough because all of the paranormal movement ceased. The leaves that were picked up dropped to the ground and the swaying stopped. The voices faded away to silent screams and finally into nothing, and the apparitions disappeared. It was temporary, however. Only temporary. 

“Everyone, get inside of the mess hall,” he turned back to the campers, his face still far more serious than any of them had ever seen it. Hesitantly and then panicking, the campers agreed, securing themselves inside of the place. David let out a breath, dropping the hand that was holding the spade down to his side and then drew his other hand up to his face, examining his wrist. This was the one with the handcuff around it, and the skin was burned and red where the shiny cuff had touched it due to exposure for more than a few seconds. That’s what he gets for buying silver handcuffs. Though that’s exactly why he had gotten them. Still, it didn’t stop it from hurting like a bitch, and he bit his lip slightly. Though before he could be concerned about his own well-being, he turned around to face Max with a concerned look on his face. 

“Max, are you okay? Do you have a concussion, is your vision blurry? Tell me, how many fingers am I holding up?” the counselor immediately switched back to his passive self, wracked with worry for the young boy as he held up three fingers, still holding the spade in the other hand, waiting for a reaction. 

. . . Max POV . . .

Max had turned his attention to David, holy fuck. He was actually doing something! Something pretty bad ass might he had. He was wobbling slightly to the left, his eyes threatening to close. But Max fought it wanting to see what was going to be the result. He could still feel the blood trickling down his neck. He rested his hand against the flagpole trying to keep his balance. All he could hear over the sound of David threatening the ghost was the pounding in his head. He couldn't make out any of the words he was saying. They sounded like he was going deaf in one ear. He wanted to shield himself from the harsh chilly wind that the ghosts had brought to this camp. The warmth of the blood was not enough to keep him at a comfortable temperature. All he wanted to do right now was say fuck it and go to sleep. What was happening to him? Drowsiness overcame the camper who was trying his best to keep himself alert. Everything went silent before becoming louder with the panicked screams of the other campers. Slowly, he was following the others holding onto the framing of the mess hall once he was within reach of it. 

The pain in the back of his head was tense. The ghosts had really done some damage to his health. As if his mental health was not bad enough. He was barely able to walk without stumbling around. His two friends Nikki and Neal had to help him over to the inside of the mess hall. He shoved one off with one hand and the other off with his other bloody hand. 

"I can walk myself! I am not injured. Do not touch me again," He was in denial, hating to be the vulnerable one in any situation. 

"Max, let us help you. You are bleeding," Neil argued but had no strict tone to his voice. He was gentle with his words. 

"Yeah, and you look like a sleepy old man," Nikki added, raising her eyebrow just as concerned. 

"I said I am fine. Jesus Christ, I don't need you guys holding my hand like we are in some three-way relationship," They could tell he was anything but fine. His eyes were growing heavy reaching the entrance which was taking him longer than the rest of the campers. 

He felt at the wall. His vision clouded by the time he had gotten to a table. He almost tripped over the table but luckily he had caught himself. That was when he had heard a voice that he was barely able to make out. He squinted up at the face, only able to make out a yellow blur on their neck. David? He gripped the side of his table tightly, feeling like he might fall again. He was squinting up at the counselor's fingers seeing double. 

"Five?" His head slumped beginning to close his eyes, but he didn't give up. He peeled his eyes open. Where had the ghost gone? Was it still around? He couldn't make out much when David was chanting before. He didn't hear clearly. Not able to maneuver his body, he glances at the other campers who had been speaking of something. He could tell because he could see their lips moving. But no sound. All he could think about instead of the ghost very little was wanting to sleep. What could he do to keep himself awake? He didn't want to make himself an easy target for those dick ghost kids. His thoughts drifted in and out, his mind becoming blank when sleep threatened to make the child pass out. After a few minutes of being silent, he slumped to the side. A slight frown on his face looking at David. Something that often didn't come out of the camper's lips. 

Weakly he had said, "Help." 

A blue sleeved hand clutching at the hem of David's counselor attire. He had said help earlier just to fuck with him, but now he was in serious need. He hoped he didn't think he was playing the boy who cried wolf. Well, he was fucking bleeding. That had to give it away, he thought. 

He was scared. Not a feeling that he often would get ever. He said he wasn't scared of anything, but dying was one of them. No matter how much he had complained about wanting to kill himself before. He just wanted somebody to care about him. Under the exterior of that cynical negative vulgar boy was a scared little boy. His parents probably would have left him for dead seeing how it would play out. They didn't care at all. Measuring the length of his fingernail was how much they did. If even that much. David showed signs that he did. But all Max could do was insult him or cut him down. He didn't know how to express feelings. His head fell forward onto David's lap, his eyes sealed shut. 

. . . David POV . . .

Oh, my… Max didn’t look so good. The child looked pale, disoriented, and was stumbling around. Characteristics of a concussion. Oh no. A concussion… David’s expression grew more worried as the seconds ticked by, and he furrowed his brows when Max answered. Five. Definitely a concussion. Okay, what to do for a concussion? David paled himself as he drew a blank on his memory. He was slowly freaking out. But something drew him out of his panicking state. 

Help. Such a small, weak little word. Max breathed it and clutched onto David’s clothing. David held onto him, saying little nothings like ‘it’s okay, Max’ and ‘you’re alright’ when in reality he was anything but. It appeared that the kid had a head injury, a pretty gnarly one at that, judging by the way it was bleeding everywhere. Blood. Too much blood. David instantly tugged on the yellow camp shirt around his neck, freeing it and then using it to staunch the bleeding. The bright yellow shirt soon became stained with bright red blood. 

Once Max slumped over onto him, alarm bells in David’s head rang, and he gently positioned the child onto the ground on his side, tilting his head back slightly as to open up his airway to make sure that he didn’t stop breathing. Though that could still happen. If he did, however, David knew CPR. He then positioned two careful fingers on Max’s neck, checking his pulse. A thready beat of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Eight beats in six seconds. Eighty beats per minute. Not bad, though he didn’t know what Max’s normal resting heart rate was, or if the child’s blood pressure was elevated. He could guess, but it wasn’t exact. He then turned to the crowd of onlookers that naturally gathered around him, murmuring panicked and concerned words, and he told them;

“Go get Gwen,” he simply said, and almost everyone raced to get the other counselor. David pulled his phone out from his back pocket and he dialed 911, using his other hand to check Max’s breathing again. He then peeled the shirt back to see if the bleeding had at least slowed, and to check for signs of a skull fracture. He couldn’t see anything past the mop of unruly curls, and the spot was matted with blood, so it was even harder to see. David just pressed it back again, in case it hadn’t. 

“911, what is your emergency?” the call recipient answered swiftly.

“I’m at Camp Campbell, just a few miles up the road and into the forest from the north side of Sleepy Peak. I have a ten-year-old who has been knocked unconscious, he’s had a blow to the head, I’m unsure if anything is broken,” David faltered a bit at the end, taking a small breath and then regaining his composure. Come on, David. If he didn’t remain calm, no one would. And then Max would be in trouble. The worst thing to do was panic. He wasn’t going to panic. No matter how fast his own heart was fluttering inside of his chest. He had to be there for Max, he had to be the adult here because Gwen had no idea what to do and he knew that she didn’t. So he bit his lip and continued. 

“I’ve checked his breathing and pulse; pulse is within normal range but the pressure seems to be dropping. And I’ve applied pressure to the wound,” was all he could manage to say. 

“An ambulance will arrive in eight minutes, sir. Remain calm and keep monitoring the child’s breathing and pulse. If anything stops, cardiopulmonary resuscitation will be necessary. Do you know how to perform CPR?” he asked. 

“Yes,” David said, though he really didn’t want to listen to the man over the phone at the moment. Gwen burst into the mess hall a few seconds later, and he looked over at her for but a brief second. 

“David what the fuck happened?!” she screeched, tugging at her hair. 

“Gwen, just get the others away from here, okay?” David gave her a task. It was the best thing to do when something stressful is happening. Give everyone who is panicking a task so that they were less likely to panic. Gwen did hers well, and soon all of the campers were away somewhere else besides Max. 

David let out an audible sigh of relief when he heard sirens in the distance and the flashing red lights of the ambulance. The next few minutes seemed to go by in slow motion. At first, when the paramedics attempted to take Max away from him, David was dangerously protective, and then he lost all composure and started bawling his eyes out. At least he was able to remain calm for that amount of time that was needed. But… Seeing Max hooked up to an oxygen mask and a blood pressure cuff, with people that he didn’t know hovering all around was just too much. The counselor almost missed the woman telling him that he needed to go in the ambulance because they had no way of contacting Max’s parents without him. And once he was inside of it, he felt nothing but guilt. Max wouldn’t be hurt if he had of listened to him about the ghosts in the first place. He wouldn’t be riding in an ambulance to a hospital if it wasn’t for David’s stupid, incompetent idiocy. More tears pricked at the camp man’s eyes. 

“Oh, Max. I’m so sorry.”

The next hour or so was legalities. David could not reach Max’s parents no matter how many times he called the number that they had left, no matter how many times that he left voicemails saying that Max was in the hospital. David had chewed his fingernails down to nubs with the worry. It seemed as if Max’s parents didn’t want to be contacted. Like they simply wanted to be rid of their son. The number that they had given him wasn’t even a valid number, he realized after the tenth time calling. He was leaving voicemails god knows where. This angered the counselor. How could they care so little about their own son? Irritation boiled up inside of David, so much so that he stood up from his position in the waiting room and chucked the hospital phone at the wall as hard as he could, causing it to shatter into seemingly a thousand tiny pieces. People looked at him, and then saw his distraught face, and forgave his actions. The hospital workers attempted to calm him down, to offer to get him some coffee, anything. 

“I don’t want fucking coffee,” David was half snarling, half crying at this point, “I just want to know if Max is okay.”

And another hour later, he got his wish. The lanky man was allowed into the child’s room, and he immediately sat at his bedside on his knees, his hand wrapped around the other’s smaller one. Max would probably call him an over-worried dumbass for this. But he honestly couldn’t care. He simply grinned giddily, giving a sigh of relief. Max’s parents could be dealt with later. David looked out the window to see that it was night now. 

And soon enough, the late time and the steady thrum of the heart monitor that gave David reassurance that Max was still alive lulled the stressed out counselor into a much-needed sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> I live for comments and criticism! Thank you.


End file.
